tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81844527356142765202018-11-13T02:27:49.464-08:00elden-techThis is a journal of my various adventures in technology.Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-46536236983829678912018-10-22T21:20:00.001-07:002018-10-22T21:54:13.209-07:00Audio nirvana<p>I like to play with audio gear. And I’ve been searching for a good setup in the office in our home where I sit in front of my computer most of the time. It’s basically the smallest room in the house. A small bedroom that I use as my man cave.</p><p>My last good audio system was comprised of a basic $500 stereo receiver and a $1,500 pair of speakers. That sounded very nice.</p><p>After getting married, my needs changed. I no longer needed a $2,000 sound system to listen to Fox News. So I gave away my speakers and downgraded to a Polk Audio soundbar. Actually, the Polk soundbar doesn’t sound half bad. But it’s in the bedroom with one of our TVs. We use a Yamaha soundbar in the living room with our other TV. (the Polk sounds better)</p><p>So then I’m left with the dilemma… what to use for audio in my man cave?</p><p>I’ve played with a number of solutions. I tried a set of highly-rated studio monitors. I also tried a highly-rated 2.1 setup. More recently I settled on a pair of Apple HomePods. They were pretty good. The HomePod is relatively new from Apple. It’s a “smart” speaker. We use them to control our lights and things. But they also sound really good. As a matter of fact, their quality sound is what sets them apart from other smart speakers.</p><p>Two of these were pretty good. But we recently traded in our smart phones and ended up stuck with a couple of Apple Store gift cards as a result. Not what we were hoping. So I was trying to think of what we could possibly use these gift cards for and boom. I have it!</p><p>I thought, why not add two more HomePods to the man cave mix? So I did. And I configured them as a second stereo pair. I keep up on the forums and things and I haven’t heard of anyone who has been crazy enough to put four of these together in a small room. However they sound pretty awesome.</p><p>I have them configured as two stereo pairs. One front, one rear. My seating position is roughly in the middle. One big selling point of these speakers is their omnidirectionality. They have seven main drivers that point out in all directions. And they have smart beam-forming tech that tunes the output to the room characteristics.</p><p>Tonight I gave this setup the Metallica black album test. And wow. This actually doesn’t seem that far from the quality of the old audio setup that I used to have with the two 90lb speakers.</p><p>The real thing about this is… these speakers are “omni-directional”. Meaning no matter where you are, you are in front of them. This makes for an “immersive” experience. Which is something that all audio buffs are after. With four of these bad boys I am basically surrounded with omni-directional sound.</p><p>My ears are still ringing. Seriously.</p><p>The reality is, the Apple HomePod totally scales. Get one if you like good sound. Add a second one if you want really good sound. And if you’re totally nuts, add two more. </p>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-41610133031248173802018-10-22T14:03:00.001-07:002018-10-22T14:47:56.126-07:00Value vs Value-to-me<p>I've been known to ramble on about tech device overload. That's what I call it when I have too many gadgets that get too little use. I was avoiding selling them because of the loss that I would incur (new vs used price). <p>I had a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, and a smart phone. The laptop and tablet saw very little use. Most of my time is spent at my desk at home in front of my desktop computer (when I'm not at work). And the times when I am out and about, the last thing I normally want to do is tote my larger tech devices around with me. I mean the idea is to get away from it right?... and be with actual people. <p>My wife and I recently upgraded our smart phones to Apple's latest. As I was working out the details I had a thought. And the thought was, I am putting so much money into this device, perhaps it should be my only mobile device. After all, it's very capable right? <p>That's when I put my laptop and tablet up for sale on <a href="https://swappa.com/">Swappa</a> and cashed them out. <p>Now I have only two computing devices. My desktop computer and my smart phone. The items I sold had a fair amount of value. But they did not have very much value to me. And by no longer having them in my mobile device mix, I have increased my smart phone's value to me. So getting rid of stuff for cash gave something else I had more value. And I will actually get more use out of it. I like that.Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-51743831122984872332018-04-21T13:34:00.001-07:002018-04-23T05:27:18.019-07:00Cloud services<p>This last week was a real exercise in futility. Before this, I had been firmly planted in the Apple camp. Using iCloud for email and all my files. Using Numbers and Pages for my spreadsheets and documents. This worked pretty well.</p> <p>Enter the thought, that Numbers is maybe sort of lame. Google Sheets is much better they said. So I moved my email over to Gmail. I moved all my cloud stuff over to Google Drive. And I converted all my documents over to Google Sheets and Google Docs.</p> <p>Gmail has a big advantage over iCloud email if you have your own custom domain. Because it lets you send email from an address at that domain. This something that iCloud does not allow. This is all great and everything.</p> <p>It was around this time that I realized... I'm basically doing the ChromeBook thing again. That's the thing where all my stuff is using Google and it all sits in the cloud. At that point it makes no difference WHICH operating system I'm running. So I setup both of my Macs to dual-boot Windows 10.</p> <p>A little background on this... I have frequented a Mac chat channel on IRC for quite some time. Those guys are very knowledgeable about the Mac. But they bash it a lot! I had grown quite weary of hearing very technical people who were also very clearly Apple fans, bash macOS. Another reason why I figured FINE, I will run Windows 10 on my two Macs, and I will use Google for all my things, and life will be great!</p> <p>Then I realized there were a few problems. One problem, is that many email clients (Apple's included) do not have the ability to use that nice functionality in Gmail where you can send from an address at your own domain. So that cancels out that benefit. If your desired email client can't deal with it, it's of no use. Unless you want to be stuck using Gmail's web interface, which I did not.</p> <p>The second problem however, was by far the biggest. And that is the fact that when you are using Google Sheets and Google Docs, you essentially have ZERO ability to back up your documents. Yes, you can install Backup and Sync for Google Drive, but that does NOT give you local copies of these documents. It only gives you shortcuts that point to the web. Having an IT background means... I don't do things without backups. I just don't.</p> <p>So then I figured... how bout MS Office 365? It understands native Excel and Word formats. And you get local copies of these documents so you can easily back them up. Perfect! So I subscribed to Office 365 and converted all my documents and cloud stuff over to OneDrive.</p> <p>After finding out that my preferred email client didn't support Gmail's custom domains I figured great, with Office 365 I get Outlook! That will surely do the job right? No. It does email fine, but it FAILS to integrate with iCloud calendars and contacts. Yet another fail.</p> <p>This is about the time where I started realizing how good I had things when I was in the Apple ecosystem. And so back I went. I moved everything back to Apple services. Email, spreadsheets, and documents, the whole bit.</p> <p>Now I'm back to having ZERO integration problems. And Numbers does everything I need. I have experienced the other worlds first-hand, and found them lacking. Of course this means that the Windows 10 partitions on my two Macs are a bit useless. During the course of this whole escapade, I did end up having to spring for an additional Windows 10 license for about $120. I guess the lesson was worth that.</p>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-67513055937813154542018-03-18T00:20:00.001-07:002018-03-19T21:01:35.738-07:00Speaker wars<p>Of course there is no war at all, except that which has been in my head over which speakers to use in our office. I have switched between having a HomePod in the office to having my Harman Kardons in there... and back and forth a number of times.</p> <p>Most recently, we have one HomePod in the living room, one in the bedroom, and the Harman Kardons in the office. This has been working rather well. Shawna has been using the HomePods in the bedroom and living room and enjoying them.</p> <p>So today I was doing some "audio tests" and came to another decision (a similar thing happened the last time I did audio tests). For those who don't know, these audio tests are what we refer to around here as "music appreciation hour". That happens on occasion when I am left unsupervised for more than an hour or two.</p> <p>Anyway, my conclusion today was... while the Harmon Kardons might outcrank the HomePod... there are more things to consider.</p> <p>Perhaps the Harman Kardons are superior. I don't even really know for sure. I do know that all the feedback I've read about the HomePod talks about the excellent sound. Even the people who don't like it say it sounds great. So I simply might be mistaken in thinking the Harman Kardons sound better. I honestly suspect that is true. I mean how could a $150 set of speakers outperform a $350 one that by all accounts is "great sounding for the price"?</p> <p>So my decision... is to double-down. I am going to buy a third HomePod to use in the office. We will essentially have one in each room of the house. My OCD likes things being uniform. Three matching speakers. Yay! And Siri in every room to control our HomeKit devices.</p> <p>So the Harman Kardons are back in the box in the garage where they will likely stay. If they are truly the better-sounding speakers... then oh well. Regardless of which speakers actually sound better, I am fully determined at this point that the HomePod will suffice. It may not be true hi-fi, but it's "good-enough-fi".</p> <p>I did a similar thing when I shed my $2,000 front room stereo in favor of a sound bar. Being content with less is a good thing. And if I can't crank the HomePod loud enough so the neighbors can hear it, well that's ok. I probably shouldn't be doing that anyway right?</p>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-86988555656067283342018-02-22T11:13:00.000-08:002018-02-22T21:50:59.391-08:00More HomePod fun...<p><img style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WvaZFffV17s/Wo-oZFMVlMI/AAAAAAAB-Cg/aIK3kkTBg6sA1lFDp36unztoBZR59Y-YQCHMYCw/IMG_0129.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="HomePod on a yoga block" title="IMG_0129.jpg" border="0" width="600" height="450" /></p> <p>Get ready to laugh. This will undoubtedly cause you to chuckle.</p> <p>So... bought the HomePod right? Had it for a few days. Liked it. Not sure it was better-sounding than my Harman Kardon speakers but figured I'd keep it anyway.</p> <p>A couple nights later, had a few beers, and did a bunch of comparison testing between the two speaker systems.</p> <p>That night, I initiated a return of the HomePod. The next day I took it to FedEx and shipped it back.</p> <p>Then I came to some realizations (which I will detail below). Last weekend I happened to be near the Apple Store in Bridgeport Village. So I went and picked up another HomePod before the return on my first one had even processed.</p> <p>So here are the realizations...</p> <ul><li>It's probably better not to test out speaker systems while under the influence. Because anything with booming bass sounds good.</li><li>It's probably better not to test with Metallica when my normal listening material is classical music.</li><li>Loud sound doesn't equal good sound.</li><li>Bass-heavy sound doesn't equal good sound either.</li></ul> <p>One of the reasons for some of these conclusions, was some research I was doing into "studio monitor" type speakers. I have a set of well-rated studio monitors that make good PC speakers. Come to find out my Harman Kardon 2.1 system is also well-rated. So I was trying to decide which to use (since I had returned my HomePod).</p> <p>Studio monitor speakers attempt to reproduce recordings the way they were recorded without adding "color" to the sound. This can honestly result in some boring listening. Because there isn't much bass and the sound is relatively flat. But it's a more "honest" reproduction of the recording.</p> <p>Then there are the 2.1 style systems. Which can produce some pretty good bass. But my feeling is... the 2.1 system definitely does color the sound. And while it sounds way better when cranking up Metallica after a few beers, it's probably not "quality" sound.</p> <p>That's when I concluded that the Apple HomePod is probably a great speaker for me and the type of music I typically listen to. Will the Harman Kardons outcrank it while playing bass-heavy rock? Sure. But the HomePod probably produces better quality and more accurate sound.</p> <p>BTW, what you see in the picture is my HomePod elevated on a "yoga block". I have no idea what yoga blocks are used for. But an audio guy said the HomePod sounds better when elevated a bit and recommended them.</p>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-89596139119926176352018-02-11T09:24:00.001-08:002018-02-12T18:16:46.583-08:00HomePod impressions<img alt="IMG 0119" border="0" height="450" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nP0lrp1TbJI/WoB8WF2s7iI/AAAAAAAB-BM/Ab8Rawgy0CQN4D58LFuvUmLD-K16tdiggCHMYCw/IMG_0119.jpg?imgmax=1600" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="IMG_0119.jpg" width="600" /><br />The picture above shows my Apple HomePod that arrived yesterday. It is intended to replace the Harman Kardon SoundSticks shown below. The HomePod has no wired connections (except for power). It's designed to respond to voice commands (via Siri). One can also stream to it from any Airplay-capable device.<br /><br /><img alt="Soundsticks" border="0" height="545" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vkuAlHfO7R8/WoB8W68yQQI/AAAAAAAB-BQ/T2WhKaSsa_ozeu_tB8o5bNaNfJkoxh1HACHMYCw/soundsticks.JPG?imgmax=1600" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="soundsticks.JPG" width="599" /><br />The HomePod has very nice sound. Certainly it is a technological marvel for it's small size. For years we've seen a number of small bluetooth speakers on the market that have significantly better sound output than their small size would suggest they should. I have a couple from Sony that I like pretty well. I also had an expensive one from Harman Kardon before I returned it and got my SoundSticks.<br /><br />For years I have used a number of 2.1 systems like the Harman Kardon SoundSticks shown above connected to various things (usually a PC or a TV). A 2.1 system is a basically an amplified speaker system with two primary speakers and one sub-woofer. I've been pretty impressed with a number of these, and I think it's a great budget solution for many folks.<br /><br />I think that one cannot expect to match the sound volume or crankability of a decent 2.1 system with a single speaker like the HomePod. However the HomePod does have several things going for it. First, the sound quality is exceptional. Second, it's entirely omnidirectional. There is no front or back and therefore no real "sweet spot" that one needs to be in. It literally tunes itself to your room and it's placement in it. Third, it has an always-listening personal assistant (Siri). This is particularly nice since most of our lighting is HomeKit compatible. Controlling the lights with voice commands is kinda cool.<br /><br />So while the HomePod doesn't crank as loud as my other speakers... it looks cool, and it sounds cool. Plus I'm an Apple fan. So there is that. Being an Apple fan means I have a predisposition to liking/preferring Apple products. I make no apologies for that. And in the case of the HomePod, my decision whether or not to keep it might be more difficult if it were not a fancy new Apple product. That does kind of tilt the scales for me. I won't lie, being an Apple fan is fun. And yes, I am keeping it.<br /><br />I'm going to add <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/7wwtqy/apple_homepod_the_audiophile_perspective/">this link to a really great reddit article/review on their audiophile subreddit</a>. Seems that this guy thinks Apple totally nailed it. And he has the evidence to prove it.<br /><br />I will also add <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofGesaa2ur4">a link to a great YouTube piece on the HomePod</a>. This one is entertaining.<br /><br />Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-72979718543092152242018-01-31T21:23:00.001-08:002018-01-31T21:26:23.369-08:00I should be a tech reviewer<p>I've been on the fence regarding the new Apple HomePod. For those who don't know, it's Apple's new Siri-powered digital assistant speaker. It went on sale last Friday for pre-order. And will be delivered beginning Feb 9th. </p> <p>One of the things I've started doing is watching a fair amount of tech reviewers on YouTube. It's quite a niche for those guys. And it's pretty high paying for a number of them. We're talking about people that have to form companies and hire employees to get to the level of video production that is expected. It can be a good place to listen to reviews and things. </p> <p>Today I was listening to a guy who's YouTube channel I subscribe to. And he was saying how bad this new speaker sucks. Shortly after listening to his review (he hadn't actually seen one yet)... I went ahead and ordered one. Just like any respectable Apple fan would do. </p> <p>I commented on his video. And he responded. We both agreed that a small single speaker like this would most likely not have as good of sound quality as a good 2.1 setup. He says "you can't skirt the laws of physics". But from everything I hear, it's the stand-out excellent sound quality that sets this speaker apart from it's competition. </p> <p>While people are comparing it to the Amazon Echo and the Google Home smart speakers, it's really out of their league. It features like six separate tweeters each with their own dedicated amplifier. It is powered by the same powerful chip that runs their iPhones. And it essentially senses the proportions of the room it's in... and it's position in that room w/regard to walls... and adjusts it's sound output accordingly. Bang and Olufsen has a speaker with similar smarts that retails for about $10,000. </p> <p>So we'll see how it does against my 2.1 setup I have in our office at home. Luckily Apple has a no-questions-asked return policy. So this is essentially a trial. </p> <p><img style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_FVffs3maFk/WnKkXSJSHXI/AAAAAAAB-Ak/ROSsSFrLREMoHe6JP9SzSpkL2b0h-uj3gCHMYCw/apple-homepod1.jpg.jpg?imgmax=1600" alt="Apple Homepod" title="apple-homepod1.jpg.jpg" border="0" width="599" height="429" /></p>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-61301261030058692192018-01-22T19:21:00.001-08:002018-01-22T19:45:30.218-08:00So much for that<p>My last blog entry explained how I was downsizing my computer gear. I had sold my iMac, my MacBook, and my iPad. All to be replaced by a newer MacBook. </p> <p>The reasons for doing this are a little difficult to explain. First of all... I have a bit of a computer habit. I spend most my time in front of one, both at work and at home. I've been fighting this off and on for years (unsuccessfully I might add). Second, because my iMac was my best device (by a long shot), I spent most my free time basically chained to my desk where it sits, as opposed to using my other (more mobile) devices away from my desk. </p> <p>I've actually gone to great lengths in the past to help curb my technology habit. I went so far as to go without internet at home. I figured I could take my laptop to where there was public wifi when I wanted to use the net. I suppose that was a little extreme. And it wasn't because the of the cost either. It was because I felt it would be better for me not to have access at home. Something to literally force myself to do other things. Well, like most of my other attempts, that was short-lived. </p> <p>With my latest downsizing I guess I kinda thought that the move to having the MacBook as my only computer would help free me from my desk. I would be completely mobile and free to geek out from anywhere. </p> <p>This sounded attractive. But in reality, even after successfully getting rid of all my other gear... I still pretty much spent all my time at my desk. I went so far as to run my MacBook in closed-cover mode... with an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. </p> <p>That's when it occurred to me. I actually paid a premium for this MacBook in two ways. One, it's super small size and portability made it cost more. And two, there was also a significant performance sacrifice involved in getting it that small. Essentially, while a desktop machine was the most suitable tool for what I was doing, instead I was using an underpowered and overpriced laptop for a purpose it was not intended for. </p> <p>Of course when I realized this, it kinda torqued me off. There were a few different times where I swapped back and forth between using the external monitor, keyboard, and mouse... and just using the MacBook as a normal laptop. While the external monitor, keyboard, and mouse gave me the best functionality. They caused me to miss out on the MacBook's best selling point, which is the super high quality of it's hardware. </p> <p>Ok, I'll acknowledge that this is definitely a first-world type of problem. But (luckily) my life is so boring that I am always trying to figure out ways to optimize my little existence. </p> <p>After the above realizations, I started thinking iMac once again. I toyed with the idea of buying an iMac and selling my MacBook. I figure I could use my iPad for anything mobile (yes, I bought another iPad). But I do believe that I could be deemed certifiable if I were to sell my new MacBook only three months after purchasing it. </p> <p>I did order a new iMac. I'm typing this on it now. This time I did a custom-build with an SSD instead of a fusion drive. It's quite a bit quicker. </p> <p>So this "experiment" in downsizing was a little expensive. However in the end, I ended up upgrading my MacBook, my iPad, and my iMac to newer models that were all significantly better than what they replaced. </p> <p>My wife had a bit of wisdom. She said that perhaps I should just accept the fact that I like computers and stop trying to fight it. Hmmm... </p>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-79836563484394517812017-10-05T09:45:00.001-07:002017-10-05T20:17:59.511-07:00Gear tradingWow. I just finished over two weeks of selling a lot of my tech gear, partially just to trade it for more. This has been a long time in coming. In buying stuff... I suffer from "mission creep" where I keep adding more and more. At some point I need to clear out the excess and do a bit of a reset.<br /><div><br /></div><div>I sold my 27" 5K iMac, iPad Air 2, early-2015 MacBook, 4 pairs of headphones, and 2 headphone amps. I used eBay for the bigger-ticket items and Craigslist for the lower-value ones.</div><div><br /></div><div>To replace this stuff, I bought a new 2017 MacBook. Essentially, the new MacBook is replacing my iMac, iPad and old MacBook. My old headphones and headphone amps had already been replaced by a couple pair of Apple AirPods.</div><div><br /></div><div>My wife and I also swapped out our Series 0 Apple Watches for the latest Series 3 w/LTE. And I did a scheduled phone upgrade from the iPhone 6S Plus to the iPhone 8 Plus. (my wife is holding out for the iPhone X)</div><div><br /></div><div>I also sprung for a Nintendo Switch and a few games. We have a Wii U that has been obsoleted. For now we're keeping both. The Switch goes in my office.</div><div><br /></div><div>This all pretty much happened with no money out of pocket. I've been really wanting to downsize my gear for a long time. I finally did it. In spite of the fact that I believe everyone I know would have probably advised me against it. And yes, when you sell used items you certainly take a hit. But Apple stuff has pretty good resale value. And some money for the old stuff is better than no money.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course the biggest change for me is getting used to the 12" screen on the MacBook compared to the gorgeous 27" 5K screen that I had on the iMac. But part of the goal here was to decrease the role that computers have in my life. Yes, having a computer is a fact of life. But I have decided that I wish to embrace a form of "minimalism" to where these things don't have more of a role than they need to.<br /><br />I also think that having my only computer able to go anywhere with me is a bit liberating. No longer will I feel tied to my desk because I feel compelled to "enjoy" my desktop computer. The highest level of functionality I have is now completely mobile. I didn't really use my old MacBook that much because it was always a compromise when compared to the iMac that was sitting right there on my desk. It's now no longer a matter of choosing. I have one iOS device and one macOS device. Problem solved.</div><div><br /></div><div>First-world problems... yeah sorry. Although it's a big change to my little world.</div>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-8179204206181979502017-08-29T11:45:00.001-07:002017-08-29T11:46:01.048-07:00Well that didn't last longA couple months ago I bought a wireless speaker from Harman/Kardon called the <b>Onyx</b>. That speaker has now failed on me. I am beyond the refund window, so Harman/Kardon was going to replace it. Well, honestly I wasn't that impressed. So I had another idea.<br /><div><br /></div><div>After I'd initially ordered that speaker, I noticed that Harman/Kardon is still selling the <b>Soundsticks</b> 2.1 setup (pictured below). I used to have a set like these when I bought my first Mac back in 2002. So there is some sense of nostalgia.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>The <b>Soundsticks</b> happened to be exactly the same price as the <b>Onyx</b>. So I talked them into sending me the <b>Soundsticks</b> to replace the failed <b>Onyx</b>. Yes, it's possible they chose style over substance. But I believe this 2.1 setup will out-perform the <b>Onyx</b>.<br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lnMmxqYnF6s/WaW05vNmHmI/AAAAAAAB9_0/aXzA6Ely9wYSuTcuXPZdyYcmQQyJkXSogCLcBGAs/s1600/soundsticks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1454" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lnMmxqYnF6s/WaW05vNmHmI/AAAAAAAB9_0/aXzA6Ely9wYSuTcuXPZdyYcmQQyJkXSogCLcBGAs/s400/soundsticks.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-89982757847836784452017-06-09T13:07:00.002-07:002017-06-09T13:07:50.980-07:00In search of good soundI just got a new wireless speaker for my desk at home. I wasn't necessarily in the market for one... but this popped up in my twitter feed as a "deal". I recognize Harman/Kardon as a quality audio brand. And it was discounted about $350 off regular price. I think one could safely say it was originally overpriced. But after the discount it's probably just about right. One selling point for me... it has Airplay built in. So I can play to it from my computer or my phone, seamlessly and lossless.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZUWfGe1pG94/WTr_bMdU_UI/AAAAAAAB99g/FZM82brPpjYfVInTZQBxRiPr1d1LcpJxwCLcB/s1600/HK_onyx_02_071441.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZUWfGe1pG94/WTr_bMdU_UI/AAAAAAAB99g/FZM82brPpjYfVInTZQBxRiPr1d1LcpJxwCLcB/s400/HK_onyx_02_071441.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-89349979955250537972017-05-08T16:31:00.003-07:002017-05-08T16:31:53.862-07:00Apple all the way...I'm not sure why I did it. Perhaps it had something to do with an app on my iPhone that would allow import of a photo... but only from my Apple photo app... not my Google Drive. But I figured I'd be better off being completely in the Apple ecosystem.<br /><br />I just spent the last 24 hours or so migrating all my data from Google Drive back over to the Apple iCloud. And at the very last, I even moved all my Gmail mail and contacts over to Apple's email service. This is something I was pretty sure I would never do.<br /><br />So now I am 100% back on the Apple ecosystem. I never really thought I would go back to the Apple iCloud email. The main drawback it has... I can't send email as if I'm at my own domain. Gmail allows that. At one time this was pretty important to me. I own three domains and I want to be able to send email as-if from those domains. But I figured what the heck. I suppose I can live with elden.f@icloud.com. So that's the address my email will be from from now on.<br /><br />I suppose I should have less hassle now. Everything is Apple. I'm no longer connected to anything Google on my devices and/or computers. I still have some Google docs. And I really like Google docs. But what I have left there are pretty much just backups of stuff I've migrated back over to the iCloud.<br /><br />In theory things should be pretty nice doing the 100% Apple thing. We'll see. I know that it's not the absolute best cloud service out there, but I think it should be alright. Sometimes the path of less hassle is the best.Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-3031100231542785122017-04-14T19:24:00.000-07:002017-04-14T19:26:57.905-07:00VMwareI've been a little bored lately. And my allowance fund has been building for awhile. So I decided to spring for VMware for my iMac along with a memory upgrade to make it a workable thing.<br /><br />My iMac (which is the latest higher-end model) only came with 8GB of RAM. Some of the iMac models are not even upgradable. Mine is. I had four slots with only two used. At any rate, I replaced my two 4GB sticks with four 8GB sticks for a total of 32GB. That should be enough for some virtual machine fun.<br /><br />I now have 12 different operating systems installed in VMware. I bought a license for Windows 10... the rest are all Linux. Oh, and FreeBSD just for kicks.<br /><br />Not sure what I'm going to do with these except just play around. One thing I learned from my previous experience with ChromeOS. And that is, if you have all your data in the cloud, pretty much any computer is a ChromeBook/ChromeBox. That's because if you have a browser, you have everything right there, regardless of the operating system you happen to be running. So any of these operating systems will serve me equally well, as long as I use a browser that supports my LastPass password manager.<br /><br />Actually, I find macOS to be pretty sweet. And I really have no need to use anything else. It's all just for grins I suppose.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VuJy1ZPhvTQ/WPGCe_TA82I/AAAAAAAB8es/ywYomZgnmscYlIKyuxbjo0AA_HkNEVovQCLcB/s1600/vms.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VuJy1ZPhvTQ/WPGCe_TA82I/AAAAAAAB8es/ywYomZgnmscYlIKyuxbjo0AA_HkNEVovQCLcB/s400/vms.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-7949973415877491402017-04-01T12:21:00.000-07:002017-04-01T12:34:09.718-07:00Node radio revisitedI will say, messing with the Baofeng 888 radios was a major pain. The main problem was actually getting the second radio from the seller (KD8MST). And when I finally did get it, it didn't work correctly. So I disassembled both my new (non-working) radio and my old (working) radio to see what the difference was in the wiring.<br /><br />Both these radios were modified and a cable was wired into the circuit boards to facilitate use as a node radio. I opened them up and sent pictures of the wiring to the seller in hopes that he could identify the problem. He didn't see any problem, but confessed he may have used the wrong pin-out on the other end of the cable.<br /><br />The problem I had... once I disassembled these two radios... I could not get them back together. So I simply tossed them both in the trash and wrote the whole thing off as a failed experiment.<br /><br />I went back to my trusty Alinco node radio with my DB9 A/B switch. Everything is working great. There are only two minor inconveniences.<br /><br />1) I need to switch back and forth between nodes (having only one node radio to share between nodes instead of each node having it's own radio).<br /><br />2) I need to remember to switch on my muffin fan when I'm connected up to something in order to keep the Alinco cool in case the system I'm connected to gets busy. However I did replace my previous fan with one that is now less noisy.<br /><br />The Baofeng node radio idea really was an experiment. The first one I had worked great. But as I pointed out to KD8MST, my tolerance level for frustration on these things is quite low. I just don't need the grief. And while the Baofeng solution was much cheaper than what I was using before... I already had a working solution that was perfectly acceptable.<br /><br />I am truly an "appliance operator" type ham. I want things to just work. I'm not in it that much for the tinkering, but more for the communication aspect. I enjoy having a good conversation. And having a chat with someone you don't know can be interesting, fun, and also good practice.Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-56036929417974642642016-09-18T14:02:00.000-07:002016-09-18T16:43:53.688-07:00Baofeng 888 node radioThis is incredible. I found a guy online who provides a "modification service" for Baofeng 888 handheld radios. This modification allows the use of these cheap radios as a node radio for ham operators such as myself who want to run a local VoIP node. I have two VoIP nodes (one Allstar and one IRLP). And I had them setup using an Alinco node radio.<br /><br />That Alinco radio is about $165 and it needs a $100 power supply to run it. It also can't be run very long without using some kind of fan against the heat sink. The fan is noisy and it's annoying to have to turn it on every time I want to operate.<br /><br />The modified Baofeng I bought replaces that $265 worth of gear for $37. And it will operate all day long without any kind of a fan. No noise!<br /><br />I am a happy camper.Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-69499213328865007392016-07-08T06:51:00.001-07:002016-07-08T06:51:57.539-07:00Another chanceOk, I'm going to back pedal a bit from my recent post "<a href="http://www.w7ldn.com/2016/07/the-apple-experiment.html" target="_blank">The Apple Experiment</a>". One thing that prompted me to originally move to Google Drive from Apple's iCloud was because I was having trouble with my only Mac and started using my Chromebox instead. That's when it became evident that Apple's iCloud was never really suitable to be a truly platform-independent cloud service.<br /><br />However, I have since ditched my Chromebox and am now back using Apple hardware again (I actually forked out for another iMac). So... yes that's right, I moved my stuff back to Apple's iCloud. It really does mostly work ok. And there is one advantage. Because all my iCloud data also sits on my local machine, I can easily back it up to external hard drives (something you can't really do with Google Drive).<br /><br />I am still relatively unhappy with the stability of MacOS. Since my last post there has been at least one instance where I had to hold down my power button to reset again. This sort of thing normally happens when I'm doing something fairly intense.<br /><br />Originally my big problem with it was happening when I was encrypting 5-6 large external hard drives. More recently it happened when I was syncing a very large amount of data via iCloud. Under normal usage I don't have a problem. However that is no excuse. An OS that buckles under pressure is still highly annoying.Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-8123560466757555542016-07-03T16:02:00.000-07:002016-07-03T16:02:00.233-07:00Ham radio VoIP stuffI have sort of ditched local ham radio in favor of a couple different VoIP setups. I have two VoIP nodes... one is IRLP and one is AllStar. They both run on the raspberry Pi 2.<br /><br />I only have one node radio. It's connected up to a dummy load instead of a regular antenna. Since it's only intended for my use at home, that works just fine. I have a DB9 A/B switch where I can switch my node radio from one VoIP system to the other.<br /><br />I was originally running just an AllStar node. But I decided after awhile to add the IRLP node to my setup. While IRLP is not as nice as AllStar for a number of reasons, IRLP has far more of a history and established user base. At least that is my perception.<br /><br />For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, let me explain.<br /><br />I have a local ham radio that I talk on with an antenna in the attic. Then I have another radio (we'll call this a node radio) that I have connected to an A/B switch which in turn connects the radio to one of two raspberry Pi systems that are connected to the internet. So I talk on my local radio which is received by my node radio. That audio then goes out over the net via my VoIP nodes. And of course I listen the same way. I control the nodes by using DTMF (touch tones) to "dial up" other nodes all over the world that are also connected to radios (usually high-powered repeaters that are located on hill tops).<br /><br />So on all these nodes, there is a radio component that facilitates local communication. The VoIP aspect simply allows those radios to connect to each other over long distances via the net.<br /><br />This is all sort of fun. But it reminds me of the last days in the life of the whole BBS scene. This was where BBS's were fighting to stay alive by offering internet connectivity and such. That only delayed their death for a short time. In reality the vast majority of ham radio repeaters sit idle and are rarely used. In the Eugene area alone there are well over a dozen repeaters. But only one or two that actually have any activity to speak of.Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-68994057030506808302016-07-03T15:08:00.001-07:002016-07-03T15:36:34.822-07:00The Apple experimentI just moved my domains to <a href="http://domains.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Domains</a>. As a side-benefit, they now integrate well with <a href="http://www.blogger.com/" target="_blank">Blogger</a>. So the new URL of this blog is w7ldn.com. My other blog is at one of my other domains (moondog.org). And my third domain (eldenf.com) forwards to my Google+ page.<br /><br />The reason for the domain move? My old domain registrar (NameCheap) had spam filtering on their free email forwarding that I could not turn off. There were some email that I was mysteriously not receiving. It doesn't seem to me that an email forwarding service should do any spam filtering at all. After all, the email box that eventually receives the mail will have it's own spam filter, no?<br /><br />I made the choice last Christmas to switch back over to Apple gear after years away. So virtually all my gear is Apple now.<br /><br />While I am an Apple fan, I'm not a fan of their cloud services or their email service. I have a number of beefs:<br /><ul><li>With their email service, I can't send using my own domains. Since that's the main reason I have my own domains... that's a problem. However, Google lets me do that.</li><li>With their iCloud document service (Pages and Numbers) not all of the important features are available on the web or on my mobile devices. Only on a Mac does one have full functionality. Google Docs are entirely web-centered. So I have every feature available to me via the browser regardless of what operating system I am on.</li><li>With their iCloud file storage service I have to have all my files stored on my local hard drive. The iCloud storage is less of a cloud storage and more of a cloud backup and synchronization facility. Google lets me store everything in the cloud. I don't have to have it on my machine at all. Again, all I need is a browser and I have access to all my documents, regardless of what computer I'm on.</li><li>Apple iCloud seriously hosed my photo library on multiple occasions by duplicating photos and making an entire mess of things. It took hours and hours to clean up. I'm guessing it was simply a cloud synchronization issue. Google Drive has no such issues because you have one and only one copy of your files (if you do it right).</li></ul><div><br />When I initially went back to the Mac a few months ago, I migrated all my documents to iCloud. Figured I'd give it all a fair try. After coming to the above realizations, I moved everything back to Google Drive. Now I'm back to using Google Calendar, gmail, etc. Luckily the Google stuff for the most part is operating system independent so it works fine with MacOS.</div><div><br /></div><div>Still there are a lot of things to like about Apple stuff. But I'm not entirely sold on any particular platform. Last Christmas when I made the decision to go with Apple, I was initially shopping for a Chrome Book. And honestly, that would have worked just fine (and saved me a ton of money).</div><div><br /></div><div>While I'm on the subject of Apple vs the competition... I will say something about my Macs. I am experiencing a level of operating system instability on both of my Macs that I have never experienced on modern Windows installations. Anyone who tells you that MacOS is more stable than Windows is seriously mistaken. And I say this after having resorted to all the normal trouble shooting measures like doing a fresh install of the operating system (multiple times). Seriously I cannot count how many times I've had to hold the power button down and kill my machines because they quit responding.<br /><br />There may have been a time where MacOS was more stable than Windows. But that time is not now.</div>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-41076812458080570412016-01-23T22:21:00.000-08:002016-01-23T23:54:03.708-08:00Back to the Mac<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qj3GmGSmcs/VqMGwlfj-3I/AAAAAAABjVk/LC4J6TReEL4/s1600/Apple_iMac_with_Retina_5K_display_specs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5qj3GmGSmcs/VqMGwlfj-3I/AAAAAAABjVk/LC4J6TReEL4/s320/Apple_iMac_with_Retina_5K_display_specs.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>My wife and I have an annual tradition of buying ourselves something around Christmas each year. Not only is it Christmas, it’s bonus time at the company where I work. These things frequently take the form of electronic gadgets.<br /><br />This year, my plan was to buy a Chromebook. These are pretty inexpensive laptops that run Chrome OS. I ordered one online at Best Buy, and arranged to pick it up in the store.<br /><br />However, when we arrived to pick it up, it wasn’t ready. So we started browsing. That’s where the trouble started. They sell Apple gear.<br /><br />To make a very long story short, between then and now, I’ve managed to replace most of our gear with Apple stuff. We traded our Android phones for iPhones. We replaced our Android tablets with iPads. And I ended up replacing my PC with an iMac. (my wife will still be using a Windows PC)<br /><br />I was fortunate to be able to sell my old desktop PC for a reasonable price. So that helped. But my allowance will take awhile to recover from this.<br /><br />So far, I’m enjoying being an Apple user again. I originally became a Mac user back in 2002, shortly after they introduced their new operating system based on FreeBSD (OS X). I think I sold my last Mac somewhere around 2009.<br /><br />So Macs aren't new to me. I had a bunch of old software licenses for stuff that I used to use back then. I've renewed and updated the licenses for a number of those things. Of course some of them are now defunct.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Before this, I was pretty deep into the whole Google ecosystem. All my stuff was on Google Drive. I have used Gmail for many years. But I figured if I was going to do the Apple thing, I would go the full route.</div><div><br /></div><div>So I am now using the Apple iCloud stuff. It's not perfect, but it seems to work pretty well. I have cloud storage, plus a lot of the Mac and iOS software use iCloud to sync data. I'm also using iCloud email. There was once a time where I had higher-end needs. But now for the most part, any reasonably capable service will fit my needs just fine.</div><div><br /></div><div>And of course we're using the Apple Music service for our tunes. When we switched our phones, we also dumped Verizon in favor of T-Mobile. One nice thing about T-Mobile is, they have free music streaming. So that's what I end up listening to in my car most of the time.</div>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-24233132236233648592015-03-17T09:47:00.000-07:002015-03-17T09:57:56.099-07:00DesenseI had a little problem with my ham radio setup at home. I figured I'd post about it here just for kicks. I have two "base" radios at home. One is a dual-receive Yaesu FT-8800R that I use to monitor local repeaters. My second rig is an Alinco DR-135 that is connected to my Allstar node. The antenna for my Yaesu is up in the attic above the garage. The antenna for the Alinco was in the garage below.<br /><br />The Alinco is a 2-meter radio. I run it at 5 watts. When my Allstar node is connected to another node/hub, the Alinco transmits whenever there is activity on that node/hub. The output of the Alinco was essentially "desensing" my FT-8900. The symptom being that the FT-8900 suddenly became "hearing-impaired" whenever the Alinco was transmitting.<br /><br />I typically monitor the Alinco radio from inside the house on my HT. And 5 watts is way more than I need for that. Unfortunately, regular mobile rigs don't usually go lower than that.<br /><br />I tried moving the Alinco node radio into my office in order to gain a little more distance between the two antennas. But even on low power the RF got into some of the electronics in the room which made that an unworkable solution.<br /><br />After considering a number of other possibilities, I decided to take the antenna off the Alinco node radio and swap it with a dummy load. I tried this last night and it seems to work really well. I located the node right in my office and the RF no longer interferes with any electronics. And the dummy load allows enough RF to pass where I can talk though it from my HT with no problem.Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-65263865470027153462015-02-15T20:20:00.000-08:002015-02-15T20:33:36.969-08:00Gear swappingAfter concluding a couple of weeks ago that I wasn't going to be able to do HF here at home, I sold all my HF gear on eBay. I sold my Yaesu FTdx1200, my Buddipole and my Comet antenna analyzer. I also sold my Signalink (since it's intended use was on HF).<br /><br />I got pretty good prices for what I was selling. I actually sold the FTdx1200 for only $45 less than what I'd originally paid a few months back. So I'm officially out of the HF business.<br /><br />After selling all that gear I decided to make a few more changes. I have a node radio (a Yaesu FT-7900R) that I use with my Allstar node. I've been running it on 5 watts, but even 5 watts is overkill just for my local use. And it's certainly a much nicer rig than what is required for a node radio.<br /><br />So there's this guy that obtains used commercial radios and resells them along with the necessary control cables for use as node radios for both Allstar and IRLP. You can't just spin a dial and put these radios on the frequency you choose. These radios must be programmed via special software for the frequency and tone you wish to operate on. And that's part of the service he provides.<br /><br />So I ordered a GE MVS commercial radio for use as my node radio. And I requested he set the transmit power level to 500mw. It will be very sweet to have a commercial radio as my node radio that only transmits with 1/2 watt. Should be about perfect. I talk to my node radio with my HT on it's lowest power setting which also happens to be 500mw.<br /><br />I had been toying with putting my current node radio (the FT-7900R) in the car, but decided against it. Instead, I bought a second Yaesu FT-60R for mobile use and put my FT-7900R up for sale on eBay. <br /><br />My wife and I switch cars fairly frequently. So it is really better that I don't have something permanently mounted in a vehicle. What I will have is a mag-mount antenna in each vehicle. And I'll move my FT-60R back and forth as I switch vehicles.Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-80200945825658642842015-01-30T20:13:00.002-08:002015-02-23T09:27:35.859-08:00Node relocationI've learned a couple of things about running an Allstar node. Nothing too earth-shaking.<br /><div><br /></div><div>1. The mobile radio hanging off the node computer can spend a LOT of time transmitting. Typically a non-commercial ham radio is not rated for this sort of duty-cycle. But I'm hoping that having the power set to the lowest setting (5w) will make a difference.</div><div><br /></div><div>2. I've been experiencing a high number of dropped cellular calls. I don't know for sure, but it seemed that most of the dropped calls happened while sitting 3ft from my node antenna. And these dropped calls probably happened while the node was transmitting. It is for this reason, as well as general RF safety that I decided to relocate my node to the garage (see pictures).</div><div><br /></div><div>3. Technically I'm supposed to be monitoring the node at all times and have the ability to turn it off if need be. That is part of the definition of a "control operator", which every ham station must have. However when someone is using my node, they are transmitting and my node is not. When my node is receiving RF it is sending VoIP out over the net, but it would be the repeater or node on the other end of the connection that would be transmitting. And for that I would not be responsible to the FCC. The repeater or node-owner on the other end would. My node would only be transmitting what gets received from the repeater or node that is on the other end of the VoIP connection. &nbsp;Of course the repeater or node-owner on the other end may block me (and be justified in doing so) if someone on my end is abusing my node.<br /><br />As part of the move out to the garage I set up a spare router that runs the Tomato open-source firmware to act as a wireless bridge. It connects to the wireless router in the house via WiFi signal and connects to this PC via ethernet. It's not that different than having a wireless card in the PC, except that this PC runs an ancient version of CentOS Linux that probably has really iffy support for wireless cards. With the bridge it only needs to support the on-board ethernet.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div></div>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-89563800831675132822015-01-11T01:32:00.002-08:002016-01-23T23:58:24.647-08:00How to setup an Allstar Link simplex node<div>Check out these three links:</div><div><br /></div>Allstar getting started info: <a href="https://allstarlink.org/getstarted.html">https://allstarlink.org/getstarted.html</a><br /><br />URI: <a href="http://www.dmkeng.com/URI_Order_Page.htm">http://www.dmkeng.com/URI_Order_Page.htm</a><br /><br />Cables: <a href="http://www.uricables.com/">http://www.uricables.com/</a><br /><br />The Allstar folks are the ones who offer the ACID Linux distribution which has all the software you need to run a node. Much of it is preconfigured. It's essentially CentOS 5.11.<br /><br />So, buy the URI and the right cable for your radio. Download ACID Linux and install it on an old PC. And hook up the radio. Then configure and adjust the audio tuning in the software.<br /><br />Most all the configuration can be handled via the Allstar portal. You set the configuration there and and it actually pushes it onto your computer. You do need to setup port forwarding on your router for this to work.<br /><div><br /></div><div>If you wish to enable Echolink, you need to forward those ports as well. This software will do Echolink with very little extra effort. But you will want to change your callsign to have the -L suffix and switch it over to "sysop" mode.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div><br /></div>Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-30580337202267867222015-01-05T09:35:00.003-08:002015-02-17T10:46:55.839-08:00Simplex nodeBecause of a recent VHF/UHF radio purchase, I ended up with a "spare" dual-band radio. And, I've been having some fun lately monitoring the WIN System on a local repeater (that is connected via IRLP). So I figured I might try my hand at setting up an IRLP simplex node. I've had some experience with IRLP in the past and have really enjoyed it.<br /><br />However as I was looking into it, I started hearing about Allstar. That is an alternative to IRLP. It's a little cheaper to get started with Allstar, and it offers full-duplex operation. And it uses standard open-source VoIP software to do it's thing.<br /><br />So here you see my main computer, and next to it is a $45 Goodwill special. It's a Core 2 Duo with 1GB RAM and an 80GB HD. Pretty wimpy, but more than enough to run the special Allstar Linux CentOS distribution. This Linux distribution comes with all the stuff needed to run an Allstar node and does the setup for most of it.<br /><br />So I've applied for and received my node number. I went ahead and finished the Linux installation last night and that's all good.<br /><br />The only things I had to buy (besides the computer) were the URI (USB Radio Interface) and the URI cable. The URI plugs into a USB port and the cable connects it to the radio.<br /><br />Now patiently awaiting those last two pieces.<br /><br />So in theory... once this is all complete... I should be able to sit on my couch with my HT and talk to my node radio in the back room which will control the node. I can connect to other nodes all over the world with a few DTMF commands. And the connection quality should be rock-solid and full-quieting.<br /><br />Plus, I have a neighbor who is a ham. He should be able to use it as well.Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8184452735614276520.post-49855484412826078252014-10-02T20:41:00.002-07:002015-02-17T10:48:14.908-08:00Trial and hopefully not errorFor most ham radio operators... having a decent working HF station is somewhat of a holy grail. First, let me define HF for those not familiar. The term HF stands for "high frequency". This is the type of ham radio where you can talk around the world. Other types of ham radio (like VHF and UHF) are only suitable for local communications.<br /><br />So most hams want to do HF, but it takes a lot more energy and effort. It also takes more dollars and higher license privileges. I've had the license privileges needed to do this for quite a few years. But I've only had an HF station very briefly. An HF antenna typically takes a lot of room. People who live in apartments or in houses that are on small lots face many challenges in setting up an antenna that will work. Also, many homeowners find themselves restricted from putting up antennas due to CC&amp;R rules and such.<br /><br />My wife and I recently bought a house and we live under such restrictions. The rule is basically, no antennas. However, there are a lot of "stealth" options available where you can put up an antenna (particularly a wire antenna) that people cannot see or will not recognize as an antenna. As I've recently become interested in operating HF, I've been thinking a lot about those options.<br /><br />One possibility is putting up an antenna in one's attic. Radio waves typically go right through wood and other building materials like sheetrock and roofing. However metal such as ducting or electrical wiring are problems. Other problems with antennas indoors or in the attic have to do with all the interference caused by normal household electronics. Not only will the electronics bother the radio reception, but the radio will likely bother the household electronics when it transmits as well. Then there is the reality that a misstep in the attic will mean a large hole in the ceiling and/or an injury. That's the part that discourages me.<br /><br />One can string wire antennas around their property. But a common example of a wire antenna would be 102 feet long. I have nowhere outside where I could possibly string a wire that long in a straight line. You can get creative and zig zag wires different directions or around corners but then you face the fact that it's fairly likely that you'll try many things that don't work or don't work very well. I know a lot of hams like this trial and error. But honestly, I just don't want to dork around that much.<br /><br />So I decided to go with the very well-known portable antenna called a Buddipole.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />This will be 18 feet high. And while it's not exactly "stealth". It is not a fixed antenna. I can take it down in about one minute. And I would typically only have it up when it's in use. So I think because it's not mounted on the house or any fixed structure, I should be able to squeak by the restrictions. And it has the distinct advantage of being known as a very effective antenna (for it's kind) where you basically follow the instructions, put it together, and it works! Gotta love it.<br /><br />For my radio... I have long been wanting a Yaesu FT-857D. There was a $50 rebate on these that ended two days ago. I bought the radio online with the "will-call" shipping option on the last day of the rebate offer. I had been debating between that radio and the Yaesu FTDX1200. The FTDX1200 is far more radio. But it's not as versatile (and certainly not as cheap). And it didn't have a rebate.<br /><br />However, the day after the rebate offer on the FT-857D expired I was on the store's web site and guess what was on their front page? The FTDX1200... with a $200 rebate!<br /><br />While it's not typically going to be something I'll take out of the house to operate at the park or whatever, it will be much nicer to use at home than the little FT-857D.<br /><br />The reason for the title of this post... is because in spite of the fact that this is a "good" radio and a "good" antenna. There is no guarantee that it will work well here, or even be usable. There is only one way to know. It's possible that it will totally suck. Here's hoping it doesn't.<br /><br />Eldenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220700436512015232noreply@blogger.com0